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Fox Sports
18 hours ago
- Automotive
- Fox Sports
From Strategy To Cheese, Here's What You Should Know Before Road America
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Road America. America's National Park of Speed is what they like to call it. The 14-turn, 4.014-mile course presents plenty of challenges for INDYCAR drivers. It runs through a picturesque setting, including fields and a small forest situated about 90 minutes north of Milwaukee. The 27 INDYCAR drivers get practice Friday afternoon and another Saturday morning, before qualifying on Saturday afternoon. They have a brief warm-up on Sunday before the 55-lap race, which airs at 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX. But there's so much to dive into before Road America. Has Nolan Siegel squashed his beef with Scott McLaughlin? Do drivers have a special strategy for this four-mile course? And since we're in Wisconsin, will cheese be on everything? Let's get you ready for the race. Here's everything you need to know. Who's the favorite? Last year, Team Penske drivers went first, second and third. Will Power won an emotional victory (snapping a 34-race winless streak), Josef Newgarden was second and Scott McLaughlin rounded out the podium. Does this mean this will be another Penske or Chevrolet race? Chevrolet desperately needs a win, as Alex Palou (five wins) and Kirkwood (three wins) have won all the events this year in Honda-powered cars. "It was [a Chevy track] last year," Kirkwood said. "Every track's been a Honda track this year. I hope that trend doesn't go away this weekend." Can Kirkwood win three in a row? Kirkwood has won the last two races. Those were at the Detroit Grand Prix and World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway). He's got three wins this season. "Momentum is a big thing in motorsports, and I think it's in all sports," Kirkwood said. "When you have that momentum, things come to you a little bit easier. That race [at Gateway] we didn't really take the bull by the horns. It kind of came to us with some penalties, and we just did everything right. "And then next thing you know, we cycle out into the lead. ... To me, that just feels like momentum." What about the Penske teams? The Penske drivers finished 24th, 26th and 27th last week at Gateway. Will Power suffered a flat tire and Josef Newgarden got involved in a scary wreck, where he flipped up upside-down. Then McLaughlin had a mechanical issue. "We just had some luck not go our way," McLaughlin said. "The head's still up. ... The best thing is, we had bad luck. But I'm not slow." Is McLaughlin mad at Nolan Siegel? Siegel was penalized for blocking McLaughlin at Gateway, as McLaughlin attempted to lap him. A week earlier, McLaughlin was penalized for avoidable contact with Siegel at Detroit. This all led to Siegel's profanity-filled outburst that went viral. "It gets heated all the time. I'm no angel," McLaughlin said. "I spoke to him after the race. We're all good. I just wanted to clear the air, make sure there was no beef between the two of us. "But I hadn't heard what he said on the radio before that. So I back him [from] what he said to me. He said it wasn't a retaliation of Detroit." Furthermore, McLaughlin said he did feel the penalty was warranted. "The way that he drove me down — regardless if it was me or if we had beef before that or whatever — it shouldn't have happened. "That's what I said to him as well, and he and I think he knows that. ... Luckily, we had room on the inside there. If there was grass, that could be bad. So you need to penalize people for that." How does Siegel feel? Siegel chose his words carefully. "No matter what, the penalty happened and the stewards made their decision, and I have a lot of respect for [them] and I've talked to both of them," Siegel said. "It was a mistake how I reacted." Siegel wasn't as careful with his words during the race last Sunday. He ultimately apologized for his expletive-laden tirade. "The fact is what we're doing is extremely high pressure, and there are moments that are extremely frustrating," Siegel said. "And I think ultimately, a big part of being a good race car driver is staying calm in those moments. ... It's not something that I can let happen again. "I will continue in the future to stay more calm and not press the radio button. It was a combination of a frustrating couple months. I need to not let that get to me." Did Siegel apologize to Pato O'Ward? It was the last restart of the Gateway race. Siegel was a lap down, and he restarted ahead of his Arrow McLaren teammate O'Ward. This potentially stalled O'Ward's ability to make a pass for the lead as Siegel was trying to get his lap back, fighting the leader Dixon. Siegel, O'Ward and Kyle Kirkwood — the eventual winner — were three-wide, with O'Ward getting the raw end of the deal. If O'Ward had been able to get the lead, the track position potentially would have led to an O'Ward win. Siegel said the team had told him to do his best to pass Dixon to unlap himself. So there wasn't much discussion on the issue during the week. He said he didn't even realize he was three-wide. "I was told to try to pass Dixon to get my lap back for me in the car," Siegel said. "I obviously got a bad jump on the restart, and at that point, the only thing I really could have done differently was lift a little early into Turn 1 and let Pato by. "In the moment for me, I was told the best thing for my race was to go try to chase Dixon down, and I took a lap to try to do that. "At that point, it was too late." What about the points leader? Alex Palou finished fourth here last year. At Road of America, he has two wins, two seconds and a third. The next two races at Road America and Mid-Ohio are probably opportunities for him to dominate. And that's before a double-header at Iowa, a potential place where Palou could struggle, giving other drivers a chance to make up ground. Palou had won five of the first six races and then crashed out of the Detroit Grand Prix. Last week at Gateway, he finished eighth. "Detroit, I had a lot of fun until I crashed," Palou said. "Gateway. I didn't have fun at all at any point. We were really good in practice, but then, for some reason in the race, I was not comfortable. Although the result was actually OK and the last stint was good. The rest of the race, I was struggling a lot. "It's great [to be here]. I love this place." Is there strategy at Road America? Kinda but less than on most weekends. With a track that is longer than four miles, there is more risk to run a lap or two longer or shorter than the other drivers. That could hurt a smaller team that wants to do something off-strategy while hoping it works out. But then again, for a driver who has pace, it is a clear-cut race. "This track in particular, I feel like you can race [everyone] straight up just because of how big it is, how long it is, and all the passing zones," said A.J. Foyt Racing driver Santino Ferrucci said. Anything else when it comes to this race? This is the first race at Road America with the hybrid, so teams will be learning that. And it will be hot. Temps will potentially be in the 90s for the race, and that could impact how much grip the tires have. Will the heat change things? "I don't know," Kirkwood said. "That's a great question. It sure will for overall grip, tire [wear]. Power-wise? I have no idea." Does everything sold at the track have cheese? We haven't been to every food truck and concession stand across the circuit, but this is the land of cheese and cheese heads. If any food (other than ice cream) sold doesn't have cheese on it, it should. If it doesn't, then it shouldn't even qualify as food here at Road America. Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass. recommended Get more from NTT INDYCAR SERIES Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
Indianapolis Star
18 hours ago
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
'Blown out of proportion': Nolan Siegel's radio rant no biggie for Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin
Nolan Siegel took responsibility for an expletive-laden rant on his in-car radio following a penalty for blocking at World Wide Technology Raceway. Scott McLaughlin and Siegel spoke privately after the incident, and the Team Penske driver said he believes Siegel's radio comments were "blown out of proportion." ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. — Nolan Siegel 's visit to Road America a year ago 'changed the course of (his) career.' Starting with Friday afternoon's practice at the National Park of Speed, the Arrow McLaren driver hopes he can put what's proved to have been a tough week behind him. The 20-year-old competing in his first full IndyCar season was caught unleashing an expletive-laden rant on his radio during Sunday's race at World Wide Technology Raceway in reaction to being given a drive-thru penalty for blocking race leader Scott McLaughlin as Siegel tried to hang onto his spot on the lead lap. Though it's certainly not uncommon for drivers to use their own colorful, inventive combination of four-letter words directed at drivers who've irked them or express their frustration or disagreement with a call from race control, Siegel took it one step further, yelling through his helmet for 'Penske to go (expletive) themselves' mixed into a series of repetitions of a two-word phrase — one of which starts with an "f" and the other a compound word whose literal definition is a male bovine's excrement. The aftermath of Siegel's tirade culminated with statements from both he and Arrow McLaren on Wednesday. The team noted it had addressed Siegel's radio communications with him privately and that 'the language expressed over our radio … does not reflect who we are as a team. We do not condone this behavior.' In his own apology, Siegel said there was 'no excuse for what (he) said and that he 'regrets letting down the incredible group of people who support me both on and off the track.' Hours ahead of stepping on track at Road America for the ninth race of the 2025 IndyCar season, Siegel said he felt he'd 'made everything right' over the last couple days and is working to maintain his composure in the cockpit moving forward — a trait he feels is important for any great racecar driver. 'What we're doing is extremely high-pressure, and there's moments that are extremely frustrating, and I think ultimately a big part of being a good racecar driver is staying strong in those moments,' he said. 'At the same time, if you look at any pro athlete, they have their moments of frustration, and unfortunately for me, it was caught on the broadcast. 'It's not something I can let happen again, and I will in the future work to stay more calm and not press the radio button. It was a culmination of a lot of frustrating things and a frustrating couple months. I need to not let that get to me.' The incident with McLaughlin was the pair's second tangle in as many races, following the Team Penske driver getting into the back of Siegel early on in the Detroit Grand Prix and spinning out McLaughlin, who was given a stop-and-go penalty at Detroit for the contact, contended Siegel broke incredibly early and played some role in the incident, sparking a back-and-forth on Twitter between McLaughlin and Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan. Not long after Sunday night's race at WWTR, Siegel and McLaughlin met privately off to the side in between Arrow McLaren's transporters and 'cleared the air.' Though he hadn't heard Siegel's radio statements at the time of their chat, McLaughlin said he continued to believe Siegel's apology was honest and said he believed doing so publicly was unnecessary. 'It gets heated all the time. I'm no angel. It is what it is. I've blown up many times,' McLaughlin said. 'I just back the guy on what he said to me, face to face, before I heard (the radio comments), cause we all say stuff in the moment that doesn't necessarily mean that it's true, right? 'I think we should be very careful on how we (judge) outbursts on the radio. I get that it's important to be sportsmanlike and whatever, but I didn't take offense to it. You do get heated, and it's a thing that happens, but I thought it was blown out of proportion a little bit for what it was.' Siegel said Friday he had no recollection of the comments until it was replayed to him after the race, noting that by no means were the colorful comments 'a conscious thing,' but it also 'wasn't something I'm proud of.' 'No matter what, the penalty happened, and the stewards made their decision, and I have a lot of respect for (IndyCar stewards) Max (Papis) and Arie (Luyendyk) and have talked to both of them,' Siegel said. 'It was a mistake how I reacted in frustration in the moment and not something I should've done and not something I'm proud of. 'I have a lot of respect for Scott. I have a lot of respect for Team Penske. I have a lot of respect for the stewards and everyone who works in IndyCar. But to anyone saying how unacceptable it is, you're probably right, but at the same time, think back on everything you've done in your life, and maybe there's been a time when you've been upset and said something you didn't mean. I don't think there's anyone that can honestly say that that's never happened to them in life.' A year ago at Road America, Siegel was in the heat of an Indy NXT title battle while still moonlighting as an IndyCar driver for a couple weekends that year with Dale Coyne Racing before being given an opportunity to jump into the No. 78 of Juncos Hollinger Racing for the weekend, with team officials deciding Agustin Canapino was not mentally fit to compete. In doing so, he vacated his Indy NXT ride with HMD Motorsports for the weekend. In his off IndyCar weekend, he went and won Le Mans in his class for United Autosports — the sportscar team co-owned by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. In the interim, Siegel and his father Mark decided that with the Indy NXT championship unlikely to be achievable, the then-19-year-old would instead seek out a more robust IndyCar calendar for the remainder of 2024 and beyond. Though the team had only a month prior committed to having IndyCar rookie and ex-Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire race its No. 6 for the remainder of the season, Arrow McLaren opted to boot the young French driver for Siegel days ahead of the Laguna Seca race weekend. Now with a season's worth of races under his belt with the front-running team, Siegel continues to search for a level of consistency and performance expected of a team that has its other two drivers sitting second and fourth in the championship. Even more important though, Siegel said, is focusing on "the process" and execution and letting the chips fall where they may. Despite questions around Siegel's future, Arrow McLaren officials told IndyStar last weekend the team will maintain its full-time driver lineup for the 2026 season and has no plans to consider the possibility of luring away IndyCar's most valuable free agent: Team Penske's Will Power. Entering Road America, Siegel sits 21st in points with just one top 10 and three finishes of better than 19th, including a 13th-place finish at the Indy 500 that saw him crash on the last lap. 'It's fun looking back on how far I've come and how different I feel coming into this weekend,' Siegel said. 'I'm very much looking forward to getting back here under different circumstances in a stable environment in the Arrow McLaren car. 'We're gonna continue to focus on the process and not the results. We've had a lot of weekends where the result has been bad, but there's been a ton of potential. We've had really good pace and really good racecars. We've worked together well, and it just hasn't come together, so for me, I'm continuing to focus on doing everything in my power to make it a good weekend, and if it doesn't come for some other reason, then it is what it is, but if I can leave every weekend feeling like I did everything I possibly could to get a result, then I'm gonna be happy with that, and we're gonna fix whatever it is that's not allowing us to get it.'
Indianapolis Star
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
'A lot of work to do': Alex Palou doesn't think his IndyCar championship lead is safe
MADISON, Ill. — And with that, we have a legitimate IndyCar title fight on our hands … for now anyways. A championship race cushion that rose as high as 112 points to second place after Alex Palou's Indianapolis 500 victory, and his fifth win in six starts to kickoff 2025, has now had nearly 35% chopped off the top in the span of eight days after Palou's DNF in 25th in the Detroit Grand Prix and a 260-lap fight just to finish eighth Sunday under the lights at World Wide Technology Raceway. 'I kept saying it,' Palou told IndyStar, referencing a third consecutive IndyCar title that many — including this writer — had stated was all but his one-third of the way into the season. 'You can lose close to 50% of your lead in two races, and that's how it goes. I've been saying it, and I feel that way. 'I think it's still a lot of work to do. I wouldn't change anything or trade my points from anybody, but this is far from done.' After their first- and second-place finishes in Sunday night's short-oval clash, Kyle Kirkwood (third in points, 75 back) and Pato O'Ward (second, 73 back) sit within what feels like a reasonable ways back still with more than half the season left. 'It does (feel doable) again. It's double-digits again. Triple digits are never a good sign in a championship, so we're moving closer. It's still a long ways to go,' Kirkwood said. Echoed O'Ward: 'There's plenty of racing to go. So much has happened already, so I expect the same for the next half of the championship. All we need to do is just keep on our wagon and keep pushing forward, and we'll see if we're sitting pretty in Nashville.' Importantly in that stretch, four short ovals remain, types of tracks where Kirkwood can now call himself a race winner after Sunday night and where O'Ward has won twice in his career (Iowa Speedway and The Milwaukee Mile) and has totaled six podiums at the remaining three oval venues. Though he, too, shook the proverbial "first oval win" monkey off his back, Palou holds just two podiums at the remaining three oval venues this year — both coming at Iowa Speedway, which plays host to a doubleheader July 12-13. On the other hand? Palou is eyeing four permanent road courses — at which he has a combined seven wins, including one at each of them. Across 16 combined starts at the aforementioned Road America, Mid-Ohio, Laguna Seca and Portland tracks while with Chip Ganassi Racing, the three-time IndyCar champ has 13 podiums and one fourth-place finish. Banking on this lackluster run of results to carry on over the next two stops at Road America and Mid-Ohio for Palou is a bet not worth making, Kirkwood said. 'He's good at a lot of races that we've got coming up, and those are the ones that are going to really count,' Kirkwood said. '(WWTR) had been a track where we hadn't been amazing at, so it's great to claw back some points here. 'But everybody knows we're going to Road America next week, and he's going to put on a show there, and we'll have to do everything in our power to keep him from looking shiny once again on road courses.' Insider: Kyle Kirkwood 'in the zone' and serious IndyCar contender, no longer 'street-course merchant' In comparison, O'Ward has just three podiums in 12 combined starts at the next two tracks on the calendar, including his win last year while holding off Palou late at Mid-Ohio. Those three strong finishes, though, represent his only ones at either track better than eighth place. During his two seasons with Andretti Global, Kirkwood sports a pair of top 10s at Road America (ninth and fifth) and just one at Mid-Ohio (eighth last year), where, ironically, he thoroughly dominated during his junior career with nine wins over his last 10 junior category starts spanning Formula 4 United States, USF2000, Indy Pro 2000 and Indy Lights. 'That's a place I'm working on,' Kirkwood said of Mid-Ohio, where Andretti Global had finishes of fourth, fifth and eighth a year ago. 'It's a place we're working on as a team, and hopefully we can come back there and do something like we did here. 'I think now we're getting to a point in the season where these are races that (Andretti Global) is very close to (Chip Ganassi Racing) on, and it will be interesting to see how they shake out. Ultimately, we're just going to have to keep doing what we're doing, trying to win as many races as possible and get as many points as possible. I can tell you that we're going to do everything in our power to claw back at (Palou).' As has so often been the case for O'Ward across his five-plus year IndyCar career, he and the No. 5 Arrow McLaren crew are doing their best to bide their time being the bridesmaids and waiting for their moment to rattle off a string of wins like the young Mexican driver's competitors have in recent months. Twenty-three times in his IndyCar career has O'Ward finished second or third place, two more than Palou, with just seven additional podiums in the form of victories. 'Hand him over to the world': How Pato O'Ward became IndyCar's biggest star To their credit, O'Ward and team principal Tony Kanaan have said all the right things in recent weeks, trusting that continually putting that No. 5 Chevy in the right spot late in races will lead to victory at some point. Ironically, just hours before Sunday night's green flag, Kanaan told IndyStar that even a win Sunday wasn't the be-all, end-all at a track where O'Ward has now finished runner-up four times without a victory. What was most pivotal was finishing ahead of Palou (five wins) … and Kirkwood (three wins). 'We're doing what we need to do, but it's just frustrating. Ugh, and in any other championship year, we'd be off to the races,' Kanaan said. 'It's a good problem to have to complain about, but it's frustrating, man. '(Pato's) driving a hell of a championship. I think he's matured a lot, and he's doing what he needs to do. He's been carrying it, and his team has been behind him. As a team, you keep pushing, but it's not even about, 'What do we do differently?' Nothing. It's the nature of (IndyCar). We still need to go home proud of it and keep digging. It is what it is.'
Fox News
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Fox News
Will Power opens up about infamous Plower Move: 'I just want it to go away'
Bruce MartinSpecial to MOORESVILLE, North Carolina — "I just want it to go away." That's what veteran INDYCAR driver Will Power said in the wake of the controversy involving him and the now infamous Plower Move that he made during practice at last week's Detroit Grand Prix. Power is one of the most accomplished and respected drivers in the INDYCAR SERIES. Although he is a highly aggressive driver, his peers enjoy racing against the two-time INDYCAR champion and former Indianapolis 500 winner at Team Penske because they know Power will race them hard, but cleanly. That is why last Friday's Plower Move on Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global was surprising. It was early in practice last week and Power's No. 12 Honda entered the slow Turns 5 and 6 area of the Detroit street course in front of the Renaissance Center. He encountered another slow car, Kyle Kirkwood's No. 27 Honda. It's the slowest portion of the race course and Power was trying to get a gap. But on an extremely narrow race course that is also very short at 1.645-miles in length, that can be a maddening experience at Detroit. Power drove up from behind and put the nose of his car under the rear attenuator of Kirkwood's Honda and at slow speeds, pushed him up the course similar to a tow truck trying to push-start a passenger car with a dead battery. Once Power was past Kirkwood, the Andretti driver put his hand in the air, similar to someone on the highway asking another driver, "What the hell?" But the incident became a viral video. As FOX Sports Motorsports Insider Bob Pockrass called it, Will Power gave new meaning to the term push to pass. The nose on the No. 12 Chevrolet had cosmetic damage. Kirkwood's crew had to repair a hole in the floor of the No. 27 Honda, but Kirkwood was able to return to practice. INDYCAR officials reviewed the incident and because it did not bring out a red flag or a local caution, there were no penalties. It was similar to an official in the NBA Playoffs ruling, "No harm, no foul" and not whistling a foul on a hard basketball play. "I think they said it was a 50-50 sort of deal where he had stopped in the middle of a corner when I was coming hard and we made contact," Power said. "INDYCAR did speak to me." A week later, Power believes the incident has become overblown and would like it to fade away, just as a non-call in the NBA is quickly forgotten. "I just want it to go away," Power said. But Power did go into a detailed explanation of what he thought in last Friday's opening practice session for the Detroit Grand Prix. "From my perspective, we were doing about five to 10 miles an hour to be honest, and he (Kirkwood) stopped in the middle of the corner," Power recalled. "I made contact, and at that point I thought he was going to then drive off and he didn't. And I started putting the throttle down and he started braking and I thought at any point he could have just put the throttle off and driven off and he never did. "It was just a misunderstanding. I shouldn't have done it, basically. I certainly wouldn't do it again." Was it the long, grueling month of May at the Indianapolis 500, combined with an extremely bumpy and narrow street course five days later that created a moment of road rage? Or was it simply an unfortunate incident? Power explained. "You're on a lap and the guy stops in the middle of the corner," Power said. "I don't know why I did it. "It is frustrating at these tracks, how tight it is, it just is, it's just very frustrating. I felt he could have moved out of the way. But, you know, I don't know. "I have a lot of respect for Kirkwood. If I'd known it was him, I wouldn't have done it. I can't be making enemies in the paddock, man, right now." This is an important time for Power because he is in the final year of his contract at Team Penske. Power is one of the most successful drivers in INDYCAR history. He is INDYCar's fourth winningest driver with 44 wins and the record for most poles with 70. He won the INDYCAR Series championships in 2014 and 2022 and won the 2018 Indianapolis 500. At 44, he is just as fast as ever. But Team Penske may be considering a younger driver, such as 23-year-old David Malukas of AJ Foyt Racing, to take his place in a move for the future. Power has enlisted former driver Oriol Servia as his agent, but for now, the driver remains under contract with Team Penske and is not allowed to talk to other teams about the potential of joining their operation if a Penske deal is not offered. That is why Power was a bit sensitive about discussing the infamous move in practice. "For me, it just felt like I was back playing iRacing or rFactor," said Malukas, who was on the track in that area when Power pushed Kirkwood. "I was like, 'Yeah, I'd totally do that in a video game.' "…But it was interesting to see. I couldn't believe it. I was very confused at the start. I thought something was wrong with Kirkwood and Power was towing him across like the "Cars" movie. "It was interesting at first, but then I realized it was not that, so..." It was certainly unconventional, but Kirkwood understood why Power did it after the practice concluded. "The track is not big enough to fit all the cars, and he got frustrated," Kirkwood said last Friday after he was the fastest in practice despite the incident with Power. "I'm not upset. I don't care. We had damage from that, too, so maybe we (could have been) a little bit faster." Power made sure to talk to Kirkwood and explain the incident. "I didn't get to see him after the session," Power recalled. "I went to look for him. I saw his guys, I apologized. When I saw Kyle the next day just before the session … we kind of laughed about it because it was obviously at an incredibly low speed with the very bottom of first gear just sort of idling along, I guess. "It wasn't like we're doing 100 miles an hour so we're doing literally 15 miles an hour or something, if that. "I thought it was Marcus Ericsson, and he had held me up a couple of times in the previous races, so I had a little bit of frustration there, but had I known it was Kirkwood's car, probably wouldn't have happened." Because Kirkwood was able to have a successful practice and ultimately win Sunday's Detroit Grand Prix for his second win this season, he was able to laugh it off with his teammates, including Ericsson and Colton Herta. "I think he was laughing about it, but he was definitely surprised," Ericsson said. "He said that as well. He never experienced anything like that previously in his career. "I think he was probably a bit shocked when it happened for sure. I think we all would have been." Although Power originally thought it was Ericsson's car that he was pushing instead of Kirkwood's, Ericsson has a great deal of respect for the Team Penske driver from Toowoomba, Australia. "For me, I only have good things to say about racing with Will," Ericsson said. "I've always had good and fair fights with him. So for me, we've always been racing hard but fair. And like you say, you know, he's a legend of the sport and a very unique character. "I always enjoy racing him and having him around in the paddock." Ericsson, however, believes some type of penalty should have been issued for the move, such as missing 10 minutes of practice. "Obviously, nothing more serious happened, but I think we should not as drivers use our cars to show our frustration like that," Ericsson explained. "I think that's not the way to do it. "I'm sure Will wasn't intending to put Kyle in the fence, but it was not that far from happening. He was shoving him for quite a while there and then it doesn't take much to lose the car there. So yeah. I think the consequences and also like if he had shoved into David Malukas there and they both crashed into the fence, I'm pretty sure INDYCAR would have ruled in a different way." Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing continues to lead the championship by 110 points over Pato O'Ward and 111 over Kirkwood. Palou thought last Friday's incident in practice was interesting and concerning at the same time. "I would say in between," Palou said from his home in Indianapolis. "I don't think it's funny. "I mean it's funny when you look at it after and it looks like a video game. But that's the fact that it's not a video game, so I don't think it's funny. "I don't think it's overly crazy either, but I would say that this cannot happen again. I think INDYCAR should have said something about it." He added: "Now it's like this is okay to do and somebody else could do it and you cannot penalize somebody else because they didn't penalize Will. "I think maybe INDYCAR should have stepped on and said, 'Hey, 10-minute penalty for Practice 2, don't do it again' and we would not see that happening again." Palou believes every driver in INDYCAR gets frustrated at Detroit because of the nature of the street course. It can't be expanded or widened because the City of Detroit owns the streets, so the course is pretty much set. Palou is another driver who has great respect for Power as one of the most experienced drivers in the series. "I love Will," Palou said. "I have great battles with him, but I'm a big fan of him. So, yeah, honestly, I think coming from Will, it's like it's okay, right? Because it's Will. "I spoke to him, and he actually told me and told Kyle that he wasn't feeling like he was super upset or anything. He just thought, 'Oh, having this position, let's just continue pushing and see if I can get a gap and it worked.' "I was surprised to see that anybody would be able to do that in an Indy car. Like I would never think of like, oh, this is possible to do." Scott Borchetta is the Founder and CEO of Big Machine and the first to sign Taylor Swift to a recording contract. Borchetta is also a race team owner, a promoter and a partner of the INDYCAR Championship Race at Nashville Superspeedway on August 31. While Power is genuinely sorry that he made his Power Move, Borchetta believes it generated some organic interest. That helps sell tickets, especially for Borchetta's race at Nashville Superspeedway that will conclude the 2025 INDYCAR series season. "That's Will Power," Borchetta said. "Will wears his heart on his sleeve, and the guy always wants to go fast. "Not that we encourage that kind of behavior, but bring it, man. It's elbows out. These guys want to win. They want to win every practice. They want to win qualifying. They want to win every race. "Those are the drivers we want in the series." Bruce Martin is a veteran motorsports writer and contributor to Follow him on X at @BruceMartin_500.
Indianapolis Star
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
10 drivers to watch in up-for-grabs primetime race at World Wide Technology Racewawy
MADISON, Ill. — If ever there were a weekend for pseudo-IndyCar title contenders Pato O'Ward, Kyle Kirkwood, Christian Lundgaard and Co. to take a chunk out of runaway points leader Alex Palou, there may be no better time than the Sunday primetime stage at World Wide Technology Raceway. Yes, Palou finally turned a corner last month and won on an oval for the first time in his career at the Indianapolis 500, but the egg-shaped 1.25-mile oval just outside St. Louis is a different beast entirely — a track many drivers say is almost as similar to running a couple of high-speed road course corners as an oval. And despite Palou's road course prowess across his five-plus IndyCar seasons that feature three titles and 16 victories, WWTR is a track that hasn't been kind to him. If you can believe it, across his 37 career IndyCar podium—s, none have come at WWTR – one of two tracks (along with The Milwaukee Mile, where he only has two starts) where he's never logged a podium. It's one of just three tracks where Palou's never even led a single lap. Last year's fourth-place finish remains his only top-5 finish in his six starts at the venue and one of three top 10s. With seven wins across the five remaining road and street course venues on the 2025 IndyCar calendar and podiums each of the last two years at Iowa Speedway, if Palou's rivals wish to take a meaningful bite out of his championship cushion, which stands at 90 points to O'Ward and more than 100 to the rest of the field, Sunday's battle under the lights may be the best opportunity to get it done. 'You've got to win races. That's the only way you can answer back at Alex at this point. He's just flawless, and the only time that he hasn't finished well this season is a track where someone else crashed him completely out of his control,' Kirkwood, IndyCar's only other race-winner in 2025, said. 'The only way I can catch back up is either a) winning a ton of races, or b) him having a lot of back luck, and I don't see him having a lot of bad luck.' The potential for a title fight swing along makes IndyCar's first primetime Sunday night race on network TV in recent memory a compelling battle to be fought under the lights, but here are 10 other drivers to watch. Blame it in part on Palou's other-worldly dominance in 2025, including wins in five of the season's first six races on all three types of IndyCar tracks, but it's not often we see such a lengthy absence of Team Penske drivers in victory lane. Following Kirkwood's second win of the year at the Detroit Grand Prix, that stretch has extended to eight races, dating back to last season's finale at Nashville Superspeedway. It's only the team's fourth such dry spell in the wins category since the start of the 2015 season. And the arrival of WWTR on the calendar couldn't come at a better time. The team has now snagged pole each of IndyCar's last six trips to the track — with Will Power taking the latest Saturday to go with ones from 2020, 2021 and 2022 and Scott McLaughlin's from 2023 and '24. Newgarden has won four the last five races at WWTR, and five of IndyCar's nine races at the track since it returned to the calendar since 2017. Power also won at the track in 2018, and McLaughlin has finishes of second, third, fourth and fifth in his four career starts. Newgarden famously isn't one to dwell on past performance, good or bad, when theorizing about his team's potential for an upcoming race, typically offering up a version of his quote from Friday afternoon's bullpen to IndyStar: 'I feel good everywhere we go.' Still, it's hard to look past the fact that only one other time in his nine seasons with Team Penske has the two-time series champion gone this deep into the year without a win. In that 2021 season, Newgarden still totaled three runner-up finishes in his first eight starts, only suffered one finish outside the top 12 in that stretch and would go on to finish runner-up in the championship. Heading into Sunday night's race, Newgarden sits a colossally disappointing 12th in points in 2025 with just a single podium, two finishes outside the top 20 and four top 12s. 'It sorta just is what it is,' Newgarden said. 'That's the simplest way to deal with it. You've just got to go to the next one and put your best foot forward.' The motivation for McLaughlin, who grabbed his first two career IndyCar wins on ovals last year at Iowa Speedway and The Milwaukee Mile, is somewhat similar to Newgarden, as a driver who opened the 2025 campaign with serious title aspirations after a pair of back-to-back third-place championship finishes, but who after crashing out of the Indy 500 on the parade laps and suffering a mechanical failure at The Thermal Club has two finishes of 27th or worse this year. Unlike Newgarden, McLaughlin otherwise has had solid performances throughout the season with four top-6s, though a 12th-place finish at Detroit earlier this month after a stop-and-go penalty for avoidable contact with Nolan Siegel piled on a second consecutive disappointment on top of the debilitating one at the 500. 'I don't believe that it's not my year yet, but I certainly need to get on the train and start winning races and getting some consistency back,' McLaughlin said. 'I guess you can't dwell too much on the fact we haven't won a race yet. We go to strong tracks, and I think we showed really good pace. We just haven't put it together. 'I feel like we've been there or thereabout, pace-wise, but we just haven't quite executed, and that's on us.' 'I'm very good at it': Will Power has unshaken confidence in contract year with Team Penske Power sits three spots higher than McLaughlin in the championship standings in fifth and has logged Team Penske's best finish at five of the seven races, and yet he lacks a contract beyond the end of this season in a ride he's manned full-time since 2010. The 44-year-old told IndyStar this week he's focused on not pressing the issue in on-track situations and yearning for a win any more than normal, though Sunday's polesitter also admitted a victory would continue to build himself 'little bits of credit' as he politics for an extension. 'Anytime you're P1, in any session, it's just little bits of credit, and one race win would be one chunk of credit," Power said after grabbing pole Saturday. 'You just have to keep doing that. Just the nature of this series. It's very competitive right now. Teams are looking for top-level drivers. It's come down to that. People that can execute week in and week out. You've got to keep putting runs on the board.' Perhaps one of the biggest threats to Team Penske's bounce-back weekend is a driver manning a sister car also starting in the top 5. AJ Foyt Racing's David Malukas, who starts fourth Sunday, has quickly become a folk hero around this short oval with two podium finishes, the first two of his IndyCar career, coming in his first and second starts at WWTR with Dale Coyne Racing in 2022 (second) and '23 (third). Famously, that stellar rookie performance came in a rain-delayed evening final sprint of the race where he shot like a rocket through the front of the field, passing McLaughlin in the process and finished second only to Newgarden, the proverbial king of the track of late. Last year, though, the record books show a DNF in 21st place, Malukas seemed to be on the winning strategy and attempted what at the time looked as if it might be the race-winning pass on Power with 21 laps to go up the inside into Turn 1. With a car ahead, Malukas, who was racing for Meyer Shank Racing at the time, had nowhere to go, and as the pair rounded the Turn 1-2 complex side by side, Power inched up to try and take the position back and pinched Malukas with a tiny tap that sent the MSR car into a slide into the wall and ended his pursuit of his first IndyCar victory. Saturday, Malukas finished third fastest in the afternoon practice before his top-5 qualifying performance and turning the fastest lap in Saturday night's final practice, only further solidifying the 23-year-old as a legitimate favorite come Sunday, something Malukas almost blushed when asked about. 'IndyCar always posts about (my record) every time we come here, and I think last year, we really had that opportunity,' Malukas said. 'But we'll go at it again, and as long as we get a good result up around there, I'm happy.' 'Nothing in front of me': Will Power won his IndyCar-best pole despite near-2-year drought Perhaps other than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there may be no other race track on the IndyCar calendar that Conor Daly looks forward to more than the short oval just outside St. Louis. Though he's not always qualified all that superbly — Daly only has one top-10 start at WWTR in eight previous races — the Hoosier has an affinity for carving into the top 10 by the checkered flag with four such finishes and others of 11th and 13th. And as Daly looks at Sunday, the driver who sits fifth all-time in IndyCar history in starts without a win (122 and counting) thinks he and the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing crew should, at minimum, be fighting for a top-5, if not a podium to match the one they earned together last year at Milwaukee. This race, too, offers the first time the team and driver return to a track where Daly ran for JHR last year in his end-of-the-year fill-in role, giving them an opportunity to improve upon a car that despite damage incurred early in the race could still make passes and carve through the midfield. Daly was admittedly irked to have qualified 15th, but he still held firm on his belief the No. 76 can be a dark horse challenger come Sunday night. 'We were already excited (coming to WWTR) because of what we could see in where we were a little down last year,' Daly said. 'I love this track. I've wanted to win here ever since I started coming here. Obviously, it's really tough to beat the Penske cars here, and it always has been, but we're going to put up a fight I hope. 'We have to aim high. It's important to, and there's no reason for us to not be confident. We just have to execute. To win one of these races, you just have to be perfect.' How to watch: IndyCar Bommarito Automotive Grand Prix near St. Louis qualifying, lineup, time, TV, radio Neither Kirkwood (third in the championship, 102 points back) or Lundgaard (fourth, 106 points back) have logged a top-10 at WWTR in their full-time careers that include three previous visits each. Power, back in fifth place with that one win in 2018, holds a 136-point gap to Palou. It puts all the brighter spotlight on O'Ward to capitalize at a track where up until last year he done just about everything up front but win. The No. 5 Chevy driver bowed out of the 2024 race with a mechanical failure after finishes of third, second, second, fourth and second in his first five starts that began with the 2020 doubleheader. He starts third Sunday, and with a win and a finish from Palou outside the top 5, O'Ward would cut at least 20 points off that deficit still before the season's halfway point. Though he's well outside the championship conversation down in 19th with just a single top 10 in 2025, there may be no legitimate race-contending driver more sorely in need of a pick-me-up than Marcus Ericsson, who last year was running comfortably in the top 5 until a hybrid failure ended his day. In six starts at the track, the Andretti Global driver has logged four top-10s with a best finish of fifth. Ericsson lost 10 spots in the championship when his runner-up finish in the 500 last month was thrown out for a post-race tech inspection failure. The 2022 Indy 500 winner has taken to oval racing during his seven years in the sport, and even if it's not a win Sunday, a finish toward the top of the field could begin to inject some much-needed momentum into the No. 28 Honda crew as it begins this strenuous summer stretch. Though his second qualifying performance (18th) with new race engineer Michael Cannon wasn't nearly as stellar as his first at Detroit (seventh), there's reason to wonder if Rinus VeeKay might be able to put on a show from the back half of the field. In the car that Malukas drove to his pair of podiums while at Coyne, VeeKay, a strong oval racer, makes his first short-oval start with an engineer on his timing stand he's called "the Albert Einstein of IndyCar" and who helped turn AJ Foyt Racing from a relative afterthought into a race-contending program in a couple years. You need look at nothing more than Indy 500 polesitter Robert Shwartzman's qualifying results (24th) to know that Sunday's race and this weekend is unlikely to be much like the superspeedway the rookie excelled on at times last month. With just a brief, segmented practice to get up to speed before hopping in for qualifying, Shwartzman said he struggled to find the same comfort he rode to his surprise 500 pole earlier this spring. His teammate Callum Ilott will slot in 16th, giving the young British driver a legitimate shot to deliver the first-year Prema Racing team its best finish to date, should he best Shwartzman's 16th-place performance from Detroit.
